Mix SEIS + R&D Tax Credits to Maximise your Start-up Funding

If you are looking at starting a new hi-tech venture then the timing has never been better in utilising the latest available UK tax incentives.

Consider a scenario where say 4 enterprising entrepreneurs are looking at building a new state of the art technology platform.

They budget it will cost c£1m to get to market but know they can prove the concept with c£100k-£150k.

But there’s a problem – cashflow is tight….

This is where a bit of forward tax planning can help.

Firstly, they could set up a new company to undertake the venture. They could then structure the shareholdings such that no shareholder and director has more than 30% of the shares and subscribe for shares under the Seed EIS Scheme (SEIS). The company would need to obtain certification that it is SEIS qualifying and it would be well advised to seek advance assurance from HMRC.

A company can raise £150,000 in total under SEIS so each of the four shareholders could subscribe £37,500 for 25% of the ordinary shares.

Under SEIS, each shareholder would be able to reclaim 50% income tax relief on their investment – so £18,750 income tax relief could be claimed by each shareholder amounting to a total £75,000 tax saving.

But there’s more….

The company could use the funds to engage in a qualifying SEIS trade of preparation for a trade by carrying out R&D activities. The R&D work could fall within the R&D tax credit regime which allows for a 125% uplift in qualifying spend for SMEs and capacity to claim a tax refund in situations where the company is loss-making – this will almost certainly be the case based on our facts as the company is pre-revenue.

So say the company invests the £150,000 into qualifying R&D in its first year then the company would be eligible to deduct a further £187,500 for tax purposes i.e. 125% * £150,000.

The company would suffer a tax loss of £337,500 and could either carry this loss forward to offset against future taxable profits or it could elect to surrender the tax loss in return for a tax refund. The refund is restricted to 11% of the enhanced R&D tax spend which equates to £37,125 cash back from HMRC.

Once the SEIS cash has been exhausted they can seek further funding under the less favourable (but still hugely attractive) Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). Further R&D tax credits should be available in later years too whilst the R&D activities continue.

So our new venture has succeeded in deploying £150,000 of funding and expenditure at a net cost to the founders of just £37,875. SEIS and R&D tax incentives have effectively provided the additional £112,125 cash funding!

This scenario does not take into account the possibility of some or all of the SEIS shareholders taking advantage of the one-off capital gains exemption on gains reinvested in the tax year to 5 April 2013 – we’ll leave this for another post as the tax savings are staggering!

Hopefully this illustrates that with just a bit of forward planning and by seeking some professional advice, it is amazing how you can conjure up much needed additional cash to fund worthwhile ventures.